West Buffalo Peak

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 6/30/2025, By: rocks512
Info: Road dry to TH, summer conditions on the mountain. Stay high on ridge between East and West as the rock is more solid. Recommend gpx tracks for the route off the top of West Buffalo and through the woods. Had both mountains to ourselves. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 10/26/2024, By: cloudkicker
Info: The road is still dry and easy driving to the trailhead. Not sure when the winter gate closes, but I would guess soon. 1 inch of snow or so most of the way from the start to treeline, then patchy snow to the top of East. no snow on the traverse, and then 1 to 2 inches down to the trees off West. Not enough snow to require traction or other fancy mountaineering gear. Wests summit register (peanut butter jar) is still intact. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 9/28/2024, By: dwoodward13
Info: Beautiful day out. Any remaining snow is inconsequential up West. You could avoid all snow descending East, but it would be rather circuitous. Easy enough to just plunge step the very short patches. I actually thought it was nicer than the rocks. There are some decent trails contouring around the basin back to the road, but I saw only 1 or 2 cairns so you kind of just have to go by intuition of which game trail is best (or constantly be looking at gps). Very strong animal smell just after leaving treeline, but didn't see anything. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 9/10/2024, By: bigfoot1
Info: The first 2.3 miles are super easy to follow and very runnable. It was also pretty easy to get up to East Buffalo and over to West without much hassle. There is a plastic jar with a logbook at West Buffalo, and an empty pipe thing at the top of East. I saw one other person out hiking the combo today in the middle of both buffalos. Coming down from West was trickier.. larger rocks than you would think are unstable. After getting back to the trees, it is very difficult to follow the "trail" and there are a ton of other crisscrossing paths that start up and then end. The woods aren't very thick though so it's not too much trouble to just plow on through, just slow going. It seems like there are a ton of unmarked, unofficial trails through here so there are probably some shortcuts that I missed. Closer to the trailhead by the switchbacks smelled of very fresh animal poop and it felt like some animal was following me, but I wasn't able to see it. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: NittanyLion14er
Info: Route-west to east pk. Some marshy areas in the forest hiking to west ridgeline ascent start point. Somewhat avoidable if stay higher in meadows. Ridge line is summer conditions. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 6/26/2024, By: Kcmartinez22
Info: Great day in the wilderness with the desert dog. Do your research before. Download pics. The descent is a way finding challenge. Peaks are dry. For both peaks, including the Rocky obstacles on East, stay ON the ridge. There is no need to drop into loose talus and suffer. The ridge goes, the views are beautiful up there, its mostly solid, and just way more fun. Definitely waypoint your spot when heading into the wilderness at 11,600 for your descent. And even then, be ready for an adventure in the trees. When they say work your way through drainages, they arent kidding. Make sure youre in the right one before dropping too low. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 6/22/2024, By: mijoflynn
Info: Essentially summer conditions. No snow up to East Buffalo or on the ridge to West Buffalo. Depending on the exact bushwhacking route you take down from West Buffalo, you might run into short sections of shallow snow above treeline, and marshes or running water below, but nothing that requires extra equipment or attention. Spectacular views of the Collegiates, esp. from West. 

Route: West Buffalo from 616-617 Junction.
Posted On: 9/24/2023, By: dcsheldon
Info: No snow. Great hike on W and E Buffalo. Just past the 616/617 junction you have to cross water. There's a couple of steps where your feet will submerge 3" so trail runners will get wet. Through the valley the trail is great. After that no trail but just need to head SE through the trees to find the peaks. 

Route: From FR436
Posted On: 9/6/2023, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: We followed the route listed on Climb13ers off of FR436. The road is now gated much further down from the old mine listed on their website. The road was easy 4WD, no real clearance needed. Our overall distance ended up being around 10 miles with just over 3K vert. We did East first and side-hilled a bit to avoid regaining too much on the way back from West Buffalo. We found a GPX file helpful as there's some wandering in the trees before you get back to a good trail then road. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 7/22/2023, By: ncxhjhgvbi
Info: Summer conditions and beautiful day! Spectacular views and the bushwhacking wasnt that hard using a GPX track. We stayed close to or just left of the ridge crest from East to West Buffalo. Some awesome exposure if you choose to climb the scrambly bits (but you dont have to). Route was less loose than it looks! 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 7/5/2023, By: brianr56
Info: As advertised. I stayed left at the intersection and climbed East Buff first. Per the description, the flank of East is quite loose and requires some care to traverse. The saddle between peaks is a blast - Class 2 with a few Class 3 scrambles if you want them. I too ran into some route-finding issues in the woods after leaving West Buff, wandering this way and that to stay on track - still ended up a bit north of where I was aiming. The road is a good catch feature, so it's hard to get too lost. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 7/2/2023, By: ekalina
Info: Route is entirely snow free, and the traverse between East and West Buffalo is quite fun (2+/3- if you stay strictly ridge proper). Of note, I encountered quite a few old roads and social trails below treeline that don't appear on maps and spent some time getting turned around/shwhacking in the trees. In particular, at the 0.7-mile mark on the ascent, the road/trail splits. I took the rightmost branch and ended up off-route and eventually headed up West Buffalo, even though I had intended to start with East. To stay on route, you should take a left at this junction and head up the switchbacks shown in the topo in the 14ers route description. 

Route: West Buffalo from 616-617 Junction.
Posted On: 7/28/2022, By: mc14tonage
Info: If you take your time to find the best route it's not a bad path to take. Once we left 617 to head E up the forested western base of the mountain the mosquitos were pretty bad. Once we cleared the tree line the flies and mosquitos dissipated. Once up to the outcropping there really aren't any cairns on this route but its very straightforward. There is no need for cairns because it is such a simple route. It was just draining from getting through the marsh, heat, and the distance of the hike. Other than that it was a great day to hike. The weather held off for long enough to get some great views of the Mosquito Range, and the Collegiate Peaks. 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 6/20/2022, By: kwhit24
Info: Windy day once on the ridge. There's no snow except for a very small patch while coming down West Buffalo. Quite a few cairns on the route. The road driving in is very smooth for a mountain road and the Ford Edge made it easy. Didn't see anyone else all aside from the "Trailhead" (11.07 mi; 3,301' gain; 4:55:06 total time) Start at TH 5:00am; East Buffalo Peak 7:05am (5 min break); West Buffalo Peak 7:50am; Back to TH 9:55am 

Route: Buffalo Peaks from the North
Posted On: 12/19/2021, By: rosey33
Info: Snowshoes and traction is not required. Ankle deep snow to ridge line and then rock hop to both summits. Deep intermittent wind drifts on descent after west buff and through the trees to regain ascent path.